What are your thoughts on turning lions loose???

[Big Mike]

There is a whole lot of truth to stressing lions out by jump outs and having them die of stress later as a result. Remember when you jump a lion out against its will the lion looks at it as a fight for his life and runs with every once of its strength causing severe exhaustion that can result in death. In our minds its just fun and we know we arnt going to kill it but the lion see's it in in awhole different light. If I remember right Coop on this sight wrote the best analogy about jump outs. He compared to a fight with a guy he had to arrest. The guy put up a good fight and he had to use all his means to get him into custody which he did. Wells the next as luck would have it he had to get into a foot pursuit or another fight(cant remember which) but he was spent,drained from the last fight even though it was a day before. When you hava an adreline dump it drains you after. Now compare that to a lion being jumped out against there will, they are having the same adreline dump and stress of fighting for there life. If its repeated it can drain the lion to the point it has nothing left. Look at the Jag that was caught in the snare a while back. Didnt kill it at the time but stresssed it. kidneys failed later and ended up being killed as a result.

Now we have all jumped out lions that dont run far and don't look winded or stressed at all in the next tree. In my experience the larger toms dont get stressed as much as females and young lions. My advice is one jump out and no more. I personally dont do it at all anymore but i have alot in the past. If you want a real good chase give then 15-20 minutes then try to catch them again now that can be a challenge.

As far as spoiled lions being a more dangerous to the dogs there is a little truth to thatbut its nothing to worry about in my IMO. Lions learn just like any other animals and once they learn they dont have to be scared of the dogs they can get more agressive towards them. Lions that are use to living in populated areas with yard dogs and such are much more likely to kill dogs. Just Ask Orville.

I turn 10 times more lions loose than we kill and I always will. Got one female so spoiled I cant even catch her anymore hahahaha

[Cal Bryant]

Well Thanks to all that posted. We are drifting off a bit and seems like people are done commenting. Here are my thoughts.

These are just my experiences and opinions I am far from being an expert.

First I have caught a few cats multiple times and from what I have seen they get to be pop ups in the timber and like to play the rocks when close to them. When caught they seem to be pretty easy going and just kind of lounge around like they have no concerns what so ever.

For the most part I hunt 7-8 dogs. Which I believe to be a little bit much but cant leave any at the house most of the time when I go, cause the neighbors would have a fit. There are a few people around here that when they turn out they do it as a group and they end up turning out several more dogs. This I believe is part of their problem as we dont have big timber, and have a lot of rock. When there are too many dogs they seem to kind of, get in a frenzy rush the cat and things happen. When I hunt with friend We never turn out more than 3-4 each because of this, and the fact that dogs from different packs can and will turn on one another when in close quarters.

Where you turn out can also have undesired effects. NEVER TURN out in the valley floor as far as I am concerned. You will end up with dead dogs!

Training, train on the real thing and not barn critters this seems to help in giving the dogs a bit more respect for their quarry.

As was said previously, when a cat jumps its post a couple times, if you are going to harvest then do it, if not grab the dogs and go on. The cat will tire, the dogs will catch it on the ground and you will go to the vet, or home with less dogs than you started with.

Just my 2 cents, again thanks for the comments.

[B-N-Trees]

This is a unique hunting sport that you can get your animal and not kill it to be successful. Its just a great day when you and your hounds have tracked down and treed a lion. They don't all need to go tits up at the end the chase. Besides killing those cats is so dang expensive and a whole lot harder to get everyone back to the truck. When you can tree and get your satisfaction from that alone you we have certainly reached the advanced developmental stages of a houndsmen. I am really glad to hear that this is the general consensus among so many of you.

[Mike Leonard]

Sourdough,

You are correct it is to me the greatest of all outdoor adventures. Some times I wonder why I am so hooked on it but thinking about this mornings hunt has me very excited about getting back out there first thing tomorrow. Had a lovely day here and although it froze slightly last night I knew it would get into the mid fifties later on. I started out from the trailer on my little sorrel horse Shadow and 7 very ready hounds. I had a new young dog in the pack today so I wanted to see how he acted with the rest. In just a few minutes I could tell he was going to be fine and he was busy casting around for sign but staying at the proper distance and we moved thru the country like an orderly regiment.No 7 hounds can make a lot of tracks and on bare sandy ground they can really scramble up the puzzle. That coupled with deer,elk, coyotes, fox and to occasional fading tracks of a deer hunters who had walked the points during the recent season didn't make it any easier. For some reason I can see tracks a lot better from up on a horse than I can walking on the ground. Not sure why maybe just a lot of practice but I think the slight higher angle of elevation gives me a little advantage picking out the subtile differences in tracks. Well we had gone on about an hour and no strikes and I was riding along the spine of a ridge that had a sandstone rim dropping down into some sage and cedar choked pockets that were good places for prey animals to lay up. I had just rounded a little bowl in the rocks and came to a place where the water runoff during a hard rain would funnel down into a sandy wash and then the centuries had eroded and cut a pocket in the sandstone running off over the rim. The dogs were ahead of me but help up a bit in that wash and I looked down and there was a really nice tom lion track right there in the damp sand. It looked fresh and I got excited and I followed it a few feet where it ran out onto the solid rock and then I backtrailed it a bit to make sure it had not just walked down there turned around and went back the other way. It hadn't so I called my two older hounds over and told them. Look here and pointed at the track, sic! look for him! Well they know the drill and they ram their nosed down on the tracks and their tail begin to flag as they suck for all they are worth trying to smell the lion. Not a whimper! Nope nothing! I mean we worked around there above got down below along the rim and we couldn't get so much as a yip out of it. Apparently the track was a good deal older than it appeared. Sand doesn't hold scent very well but the surrounding rock ands and brush should have had some and we didn't get a sniff. I was a little frustrated for a few minutes until I reasoned with myself that if the track would have been runable the dogs would have got some of it. Maybe not the coldest nosed bunch of dogs around but at times they do pretty good. O h well that is the interesting part of it. I just can't wait to get back out there and cast around and see if I can figure out where he went. With as many deer and elk as I know are in there he just might have made a kill and still be not too far away. I guess we will see in the morning.

[spruce mountain]

Good luck Mike,Let us know what happen's.

[open ears]

For a living dog is better than a dead lion.
For the living know that they shall die:but the dead know not anything,niether have they anymore a reward;for the memory of them is forgotten. Ecc.9:5